As part of one of the world's most innovative and recognizable brands, we are committed to support university research and innovation in the U.S., Canada, India, and select European countries, while also fostering partnerships with university faculty and researchers. The Sony Research Award Program provides funding for cutting-edge academic research and helps build a collaborative relationship between faculty and Sony researchers. With awards up to $150,000 USD* per year for each accepted proposal, both the Faculty Innovation Award and Focused Research Award create new opportunities for university faculties and research institutions to engage in pioneering research that could drive new technologies, industries and the future.
Up to $100K USD* in funds to conduct cutting-edge research in Sony's general areas of interest
Up to $150K USD* in funds to conduct research in the areas of Sony's immediate interest
Eligibility, requirements, submission protocol, and terms are explained in these guidelines.
Proposal submission is open from July 15, 2024 to September 15, 2024.
Congratulations to all award recipients in the Sony Research Award Program! We sincerely look forward to working closely with you.
Global research and development at Sony enables us to foster innovative ideas, which could ultimately lead to future technology advancements and company growth. In order to speed up and expand the creation of new ideas, we would like to partner with universities and research institutes. This partnership will help cultivate advanced concepts and fertilize our own research and development. The Sony Faculty Innovation Award provides up to $100K USD* in funds to conduct pioneering research in the areas listed below. Please select the single most relevant keyword to your submission. In an effort to further connect with users and creators alike, for many of the keywords listed below, creator tools or creator technologies are often one of the envisioned use-cases.
Keywords are bulleted under each category title
Keywords are bulleted under each category title
Keywords are bulleted under each category title
Solid research is the underlying driving force to crystallize fearless creativity and innovation. While we are committed to run in-house research and engineering, we are also excited to collaborate with academic partners to facilitate exploration of new and promising research. The Sony Focused Research Award provides an opportunity for university faculty, research institutes, and Sony to conduct this type of collaborative, focused research. The award provides up to $150K USD* in funds, and may be renewed for subsequent year(s). A list of candidate research topics appears below. Please select the Focused Research Theme for which your submission is written.
Sony's objective here is to drive innovation in the entertainment sector by leveraging the power of diffusion models to significantly reduce the turnaround time of manual and time-consuming tasks for creators and their workflows. By developing a unified diffusion-based framework, we seek to complement Sony's strengths in entertainment with enhanced efficiency, creativity, and scalability of content production. Researchers can contribute to advancing the state-of-the-art in smart content creation, empowering creators with tools to unleash their creativity, and revolutionize content creation processes.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Sony is seeking and developing technologies that enhance the creative process and aid the imagination of creators in the movie, game, and music fields. Multimodal understanding and generative AI, together, have been getting attention as an important advanced technology. Specifically, long video understanding is a fundamental core technology to search cinematic content, generate highlights, etc. However, long video understanding is still challenging because models need to grasp context over the long term and flow of the story while aligning multiple modalities. We are looking for novel technologies to innovate long video understanding to assist in highlight creation.
Novel technologies for foundation models to understand multimodal content, such as but not limited to:
In order to realize robots working in human living environments, robots need to be more efficient/ergonomic, more collaborative, safer, and less costly. The actuator is one of the key components to enable this. The combination of an electro-magnetic motor, reduction gears such as a harmonic drive, an encoder, and force sensor, in some cases, is the most popular way to construct an actuator; but it is too heavy and costly. To make robots ubiquitous, a new actuator and a new mechanism are crucial, in which a next-generation driving principle, configuration, and power transmission are employed. Sony has a primary interest in new mechanisms that will enable the evolution of robots and a secondary interest in new actuators for same.
We primarily seek entirely new methods for mechanisms in robots and secondarily seek entirely new methods for actuators in robots such as but not limited to:
Physics-based simulation is one of the most important technologies that accelerates robotics for manipulation and locomotion. There has been great recent progress made in complex simulation to reproduce authentic environments, such as accurate real-time deformation, photo-realistic rendering, and AI/ML for simulation. However, many challenges remain. For example, dexterous manipulation requires physically-accurate, various-object simulations (including soft, rigid, fluid, fragile, etc. objects), and methods on how to fill the gap between the real world and virtual environment are crucial. In surgical robot simulation, finer and larger-scale complex objects, and various biological physical behaviors/operations have not been achieved in simulation so far. Sony is interested in novel technologies for robotics and simulation.
Innovative simulation technologies for robotics may include, but are not limited to:
Generative AI technologies have a huge potential to support human content creators, specifically in the areas of movies, and games. Sony is particularly interested in multimodal processing, which involves the integration of various forms of modalities, such as images, videos, sound effects, motion, and 3D. The ability to generate and manipulate multimodal content can be considered a crucial component of next-generation content creation. Sony aims to develop models that can effectively process multimodal input data for both input and output, while also ensuring controllability in the creative process.
Sony seeks multimodal generative AI technology such as, but not limited to:
Sony seeks proposals that will research and develop speech technologies and applications on Indian languages, such as Speech Recognition, Speech Translation and Speech Synthesis. Many technologies and AI models are developed in English, other Western languages and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) but not many have been developed in Indian languages so far. Indian languages are considered as low resource languages in terms of developing Large Language Models (LLMs), and Sony seeks proposals on speech technologies on Indian languages for Indian entertainment applications.
Proposals that cover Speech/Language technologies on Indian languages including but not limited to those listed below;
The technological challenges in the development of devices, such as semiconductors, have become more complex in recent years. The combinations of materials used in device manufacturing are vast, and the number of possible combinations with optimized process conditions has increased, leading to longer research and development periods. To shorten the device development time, it is necessary to efficiently optimize the processes and materials. There is a demand for methods and algorithms that can efficiently perform this optimization. New devices based on novel principles and materials require a significant reduction in the time from research and development to mass production.
Sony is searching for methods that can simultaneously optimize the process conditions and material specifications (identify best candidates). In particular, we are expecting proposals for methods and algorithms that can achieve this with limited datasets at the research and development stage.
Topics of interest for methods that focus solely on process optimization that we anticipate can significantly contribute to reducing the research and development period include but are not limited to:
Topics of interest for methods and algorithms that simultaneously focus on process conditions and material specifications (candidates) or on material-related optimization alone include but are not limited to:
Recent advances in machine learning have created a paradigm shift for many applications. For instance, deep learning based approaches have achieved a big leap forward over the previous state-of-the-art in segmentation, recognition, and reconstruction. These approaches, including generative AI, continue to evolve. Sony is looking for innovative research in image/video processing based on machine learning to significantly improve existing image/video processing techniques and applications in 3D as well as 2D. Sony is also interested in this area to create entirely new products or services.
Topics of interests include:
Sony is looking for innovative research in data-driven novel (imaginary but photo-realistic and believable) digital human or character creation techniques based on AI and machine learning.
The goal is to significantly improve existing hand-crafted visual art production workflow and to develop a new set of tools to complement Sony creators' creativity.
Topics of interests include:
Sony is seeking proposals for technology that will enable virtual agents to play cooperatively or competitively in a video game as non-player characters (NPCs) in a natural and engaging way that enhances the gaming experience.
Also, proposals are sought that learn game playing mechanics from videos of human gameplay, allowing the models to predict effective actions to play the game autonomously for purposes including Quality Assurance testing.
Recently, Large Language Models and multimodal LLMs, including the Vision Language Model, have gained attention. We seek proposals that make effective use of these fundamental models to understand the mechanics and rules of games, and then analyze, classify, and evaluate their gameplays. This proposal is useful to realize virtual agents outside of the game like virtual coach for Skill Up and virtual commentator.
Sony is looking for proposals in naturalistic animation, rendering, and speech for humans using machine learning, such as animating human avatars to interact procedurally with environment objects, depicting the muscle and skin details, and naturalistic speech.
Example technologies provide:
Realizing compelling and interactive physics simulations in real-time interactive applications has been the holy grail for many game designers for years in order to deliver transformational gameplay experiences. Due to the high computational cost of physics-based methods, compromises often need to be made between quality, interactivity, computation and memory management.
Neural physics and simulation approaches open the opportunity to approach this challenge in novel ways and deliver transformational changes for use cases such as fluids, rigid bodies interaction, character animation, etc. Generative AI approaches can also deliver a new level of diversity and creative outputs.
However, most methods focus on accuracy for non-interactive applications and complexity remains generally high for real-time. Controllability and robustness are very important attributes for our use cases (e.g. how the methods affect volumetric effects, character animations, and rigid body interactions).
The goal of the proposals sought is to explore novel paradigms in the area of neural physics and how generative AI approaches can be used to deliver believable and diverse simulations in games. Some of the research questions we would like to explore include:
The diversification of user interface technologies has led to the existence of a wide variety of Input/Output devices for user operations with various performance and usage methods.
The optimal user interface may vary depending on the usage scenario and the characteristics of the user. From the perspective of accessibility in a broad sense, it is desirable for interactive applications to be able to be operated smoothly and without discomfort from various user interfaces, and for feedback information from applications and other users to be presented in a way that appropriately utilizes the capabilities of each device.
On the other hand, it is difficult to design an application that assumes a variety of Input/Output devices and methods, which increases application development costs and leads to a half-baked implementation for each operating system, which can lead to a decline in quality. Also, in online communication, considering the differences in user environments, it is difficult to introduce methods other than the simplest voice/text chat, and there is the problem of limited sharing of fun and atmosphere, including non-verbal information.
If there is an abstraction layer technology that estimates the operation intention of the application based on the operation of any Input/Output device the user wants to use and automatically converts it into the Input/Output commands implemented on the application side, there is no need for individual support on the application side. This would enable the construction of systems that can use a wide variety of Input/Output devices without the need for individualized support on the application side. In addition, by automatically generating force sensations using haptic vibrations or actuators, taking into account not only simple audio/video characteristics but also highly abstract macro information such as the context of the scene and the user's intent, it may be possible to provide higher quality feedback without incurring content production costs.
Similarly, if there is an abstraction layer technology that estimates each user's intention to communicate with others from each input and automatically converts it into an output that is suitable for the output device of the target, users in different environments would be able to enjoy online communication more intuitively and smoothly.
Topics of interest include:
We accept applications from Principal Investigators (PIs) who meet the eligibility criteria below.
We accept applications that have a PI and one or more co-PIs for the same proposal as long as all co-PIs are from the same institution as the PI. However, only one award is made to the PI and the PI's university/institution if the proposal is selected. All co-PIs must meet the same eligibility criteria as that for a PI, and co-PIs will be required to sign program documents.
A PI or different PIs from the same university/institution may submit more than one proposal for different research topics. However, we ask each PI to please not submit identical proposals, and for each PI to not submit more than one proposal for each research topic. Sony will gladly accept an unlimited number of proposals from the same university for the same research topic as long as they each have different PIs. Note that at the bottom of your submission confirmation email, there is a link to resubmit your proposal in the event that you discover that your original had an error or an omission. Please use this link for resubmissions. Do not resubmit identical proposals. Also, please do not submit "test" submissions. In the rare event that you do not receive a confirmation email for your submission, please complete the Inquiry Form available here informing us of your issue.
Please select one target award between the Focused Research Award and the Faculty Innovation Award when you submit a proposal. Refer to the following comparison chart:
Award | Research Theme | Period | |
---|---|---|---|
Focused Research Award | up to $150K USD* | Choose from the Focused Research Theme List | One (1) year, with a possible extension |
Faculty Innovation Award | up to $100K USD* | Choose from the list of Keywords | One (1) year, with a possible extension |
Please select one Focused Research Theme for your proposal if you choose the Focused Research Award. Please select one keyword (the single most relevant keyword for your proposal) if you choose the Faculty Innovation Award.
A sponsored research agreement is required that is mutually agreed upon by Sony**, the PI, and his/her institution on all program terms including objectives, milestones, publication, use of research, and patent rights before any award is made or funding is available. This sponsored research agreement is negotiable at the award stage and must be between Sony**, the PI, and the PI's university/institution only. The sponsored research agreement will be for the benefit of the Sony legal entity specifically contracting with the PI's university/institution as well as Sony's corporate affiliates.
Please submit proposals for a one-year period only. No multi-year proposals will be accepted. An extension of the research may be possible depending upon the results of the research collaboration in year one, but it will require a separate discussion for another award the following year.
Three (3) quarterly reports and a final research summary report are required at a minimum.
Sony may request the PI to support a Sony visiting researcher(s) at Sony's option and expense.
Proposal authors or universities/institutions must ensure that no confidential or proprietary information is included in submitted proposals. Sony will treat all information submitted in proposals as non-confidential and non-proprietary.
IP rights are negotiable at the award stage and will be specified in the sponsored research agreement. At a minimum, Sony and its corporate affiliates require the right to utilize the results of the research that Sony or its corporate affiliates sponsor for noncommercial purposes, including results that describe potentially patentable subject matter. Sony and its corporate affiliates will also require rights to any background IP that is required to utilize the research results sponsored. No submissions are allowed that use background IP to which the PI and his/her institution do not have the full authority to grant noncommercial use rights to Sony and its corporate affiliates.
Please include the required items listed below in your submission:
All proposal contents must fit within 11 pages (a ten-page maximum proposal with references and a one-page budget summary). The file format must be a PDF or a MS Word file format and must be under 16 MB in size. Out of consideration to reviewers, please limit your minimum font size to a 10-point font.
The CV for the PI must be included when you submit a proposal. The CV file must be a separate file from the proposal file. There is no page limitation for the CV, however the CV file size must be under 16 MB.
The Focused Research Award is limited to a maximum of $150K USD* per proposal. The Faculty Innovation Award is limited to a maximum of $100K USD* per proposal. This funding is a sponsored research grant that is to be used to conduct the research described in the proposal, and includes any overhead related to this research and any and all other fees or charges needed to carry out the research. There is a single payment for the award and it is all-inclusive of all associated expenses and fees. Sony will not specify a maximum amount or percentage of the budget that may be allocated to overhead.
The submitter must agree to the 2024 Sony Research Award Program Submission Terms and Conditions (click here to see) before submitting a proposal. Please obtain a prior review of your submission by your institution's sponsored research office if they require a review of research proposals prior to their submission.
Submissions must be done through the online submission form.
Submissions made by email will not be accepted. Submissions must be in the English language or they will not be accepted. Submitters will automatically receive a confirmation email once they complete the online submission form and process. Please keep the confirmation email as proof of each submission.
Submissions must be completed by 11:59 pm PDT (Pacific Daylight Time; UTC-7) on September 15, 2024 / 8:59 am CEST (Central European Summer Time; UTC+2) September 16, 2024 / 12:29 pm IST (Indian Standard Time; UTC+05:30) September 16, 2024.
Duplicate submissions will not be accepted for the same proposal title from the same PI. Please do not make duplicate submissions. Use the resubmission link at the bottom of your confirmation email if you discover that your submission has an error or an omission.
The following information will be required in order to complete the online submission form for each proposal submitted.
Principal Investigators (PIs) will be notified of the submission review results for each proposal submitted around March of 2025. Sony will only be able to provide some limited feedback on the review process results for the highest-ranked proposals due to limited resources.
Program details will be negotiated with a PI and their university/institution if their proposal is selected. Funding will be available only after we have agreed to the terms of and signed a sponsored research agreement.
Please contact us via the Inquiry Form if you have a question regarding the 2024 Sony Research Award Program. The Research Award Program Administration Office is the only resource that can officially answer your question(s).
Please visit www.sony.com and contact the appropriate channel listed at the bottom of the web page if you have questions outside of the Sony Research Award Program (such as business proposals, joint venture proposals, research proposals that are not related to any of Focused Research Themes or keywords for the Faculty Innovation Award), or any other inquiry or proposal.